The Incredible Hulk #3 Review

Hulk battles two of Banner's new creations.

I'll echo the sentiments in previous reviews and say that this new Hulk series doesn't quite reach the level of quality I would have expected from the creative team. The premise of Hulk battling a rogue Bruce Banner is sound, but something about the series isn't quite coalescing.

Is it the artwork? There are far less names filling the credits page this month, but Marc Silvestri's work still lacks a sense of uniformity. Given that Silvestri is credited with the ambiguous task of "line art," it's likely he's still receiving assistance from the crew at Top Cow. The art frequently shifts in clarity and line weight throughout the issue. At its best, the book offers engaging shots of musclebound monsters and science projects gone astray, but it never succeeds in capturing emotion very well.

Jason Aaron's scripting is solid, but there's still a certain quality lacking here that can be found in books like Wolverine and the X-Men. The tone is too dreary and pessimistic. Banner's characterization goes overboard into mad scientist realm, and if Aaron isn't careful the character may be irrevocably damaged. And while the introduction of a mysterious player responsible for the Hulk/Banner separation is interesting, it doesn't mesh with Aaron already wrote in his Fear Itself epilogue segment.

At least his interpretation of Hulk is solid. The juxtaposition of the man vs. monster angle remains strong. The character retains his previous level of relative intelligence, allowing him to successfully narrate the series without it descending into farce. Hulk is the right blend between savage and hero. But will that be enough to carry the series for any real length of time?